Good luck on that, finding a *good* server isn't going to be easy... and many people have different preferences. Some like the large populace for WoE stuff, others prefer just a social environment.

I'm more along the second type of player. Could care less about things like WoE, but really like the social interaction and people to play together. Hence why I've been so against multi-clienting. It destroys social interaction with the majority of other people and removes the entire point of playing a support class character.

And it allowed multi-clienting, so it wasn't all that great with regards to creating a social environment... but it was fun while it lasted. Good server when you can accept its shortcomings (multiclienting, MVP cards, easily exploitable bugs which were exploited, and hmmm, guild drama? lol)

Sure, if the goal of the server is to have a bunch of shut-in's that don't like to interact with other people or are just plain greedy, then multi-clienting is great!

But if you want to balance the social environment, make playing a support class have purpose, or even make pvp/woe more of a challenge than just "I make a bunch of accounts with single characters and multi-client spell blast the entrance to the emp room", then multi-clienting has to go.

You know, Challenge?

Like actually learning to use strategy?Like actually knowing how to use teamwork?

Its effectiveness outside of that is kinda limited, considering most peoples computers will struggle to do more than 3 clients, barely enough for a Priest and Bragi slave, and even than managing the 3 single handedly is a juggle.

To be completely honest, tons of people would not be 99 on Ygg if they could not use Priests (I know from personal experience), if that is a bad thing or not, it is open to debate.

It's a problem outside of WoE too, disable multi-client and look at how it changes your daily leveling routine. Makes everything too easy and discourages partying. Wonder why you see all the newer players complain about the lack of parties on YGG?

Not to mention how easy it is to camp MVPs with the right combination... one we all know of is champ + prof + priest. Managing 3 clients is pretty easy once you are used to it. I did 5 at one point for a certain MVP... now that was kinda hard.

Honesty, I've played RO prior to the whole multi-client thing being a popular thing. It was more fun and easier to level because you almost always could find a party or meet new people who were actually willing to play with others because there WASN'T an alternative. Hell when it came to trading items to other accounts or characters you'd ask a friend to help.

Multi-clienting may not change your routine, but it certainly changes a lot of others. The support slaves are the primary thing that irritates me, because it makes playing those classes totally pointless.

There's another perfectly good reason. Not everyone has the ability to take advantage of multiple clients, be it because of their computer, ISP, or location from the server. So it's not really that fair to those who can't to allow others to do so.

I thought he already got some help for the quests portion? Unless by script writing you mean the computer coding... which I'm sure he's capable of doing. He sure can do that alone! (he needs the practice anyway lol)

You'd be surprised man. I've got quite a bit of work to do, and getting other people to help out on something like this has proved difficult. Most dev-type people would prefer to work on something already running than help get something in shape to be launched.

The thing that's taking so long is i'm not just doing the cheesy-ass "slap up a eA server with all the stock NPC's" method. To be totally honest, kRO sucks. It's quests suck, it's balancing sucks, it's npc designs suck. You can tell this when people find more interest in grinding out their levels than most other things in the game world, which is usually the most boring and undesirable part of most other mmo's.

Grinding should be a last resort to leveling. Not meaning that it needs to be made ineffective, just that is shouldn't be the only method. People avoid quests in most RO servers because they don't really do anything for them.

For instance, the way I'd like class change quests to be structured on Asgard is totally different than most (probably any) RO servers. Changing to your first job will not require any sort of special quests (nor will changing to your second job either, but I'd advise doing some anyhow), but once you choose your first class you'll have the "option" of beginning quests geared towards your 2nd class goal. These quest would help you in multiple ways, be that in getting some item(s) that will be helpful to that class (possibly even later down the road), base/job exp, or pointers/suggestions on build stuff.

Most quests would be optional, and people can feel free to grind if they want to. But they'll just need to keep in mind that if they do, they may not have some of the advantages that players who've done some of these things would get. Such as faster leveling or prepared and possibly special gear. The class change quest(s) will no longer be available to you once you've changed to your 2nd tier class. That's not to say "some" quests wouldn't be required in some cases.

Also, failing quests will be possible in cases, and there will be consequences for failure in cases. Having zero failure in a game's content makes that content totally pointless.

All of us here are so used to grinding, it will take some time to get used to if we were to try out your method of leveling up. But change is good. I wouldn't wanna grind as much as I did on other RO servers... been there done that for over a year and I gotta say - so many hours wasted on YGG.

For Asgard I think it's probably best if you can achieve a balance between the 2 styles of play; grinding and questing to gain either experience or gears/zeny. Let the players choose how they want to level up, and either method should be similar in terms of exp per time spent ratio. This way the server can still be a quest based server the way you like it, but can also attract players that are used to the more conventional method of leveling by grinding. Personally, even if I'm set on questing to level up, some time down the road I might still go back to grinding just for old time's sake.

As for the quests, remember to take advantage of the alignment system, where some quests are only open to a certain alignment. Or perhaps all quests are available but some will be a lot easier based on your alignment, similar to Fallout 3. Hopefully you didn't encounter any problems with the alignment system scripting, it will make things that much more interesting. You can even expand this by say... having NPCs that would only serve a specific alignment. Or guilds that only allow members of a certain alignment.

And is it possible to have quests that must be completed by multiple players? That way players will need to work together somehow, kinda like co-op play in mainstream gaming.

heh, i for one dont mind grinding so much, it gives me something to do with my time, i grinded like MAD on ygg lol, once even for 60 hours nonstop (yes i didnt sleep during that, and my guildies might remember)

You weren't listening. I'm not making grinding impossible, I'm making it a last resort. The quests are optional so those who want to grind can feel free to their hearts content.

The idea of properly structured quests is to help new people to the game, or even new players on the server gain gear, some experience, and maybe a little advice based towards their target class. It's not like the players leveling in this fashion would end up with god items that other players grinding can't get. Though I will warn that there may possibly be quests that stem from portions of these quests that you will not be able to complete if you haven't followed through the quest chain it belongs to. Though even in that case it'd more than likely be something that's special but not super powerful.

There's no way to give special benefits to people who grind a crap ton, nor will I strive to do so. Most quests are optional, and I view it more as the player is opting out of things that are available to them.

The alignment system is in sever thought. Though you won't be locked into any side of the alignment. YES, it WILL effect things that are open to you, and if you take actions towards... darker tendencies... you can move back towards good tendencies but it won't be easy. Same difference the other way around. However, when a player trans's they will be reset back to dead-center neutral so if they took a path they didn't like before they will have a 2nd chance. I'd like to see about color-coding responses you can make in order to depict the tendency they lean towards... There will probably be things for even staying somewhere in the center too.

You weren't listening. I'm not making grinding impossible, I'm making it a last resort. The quests are optional so those who want to grind can feel free to their hearts content.

If grinding yields significantly less rewards than doing the quests, no one will grind. They will just join another server that favors grinding. By making grinding a last resort, you are pretty much telling the grinders to not try out the server at all. If you can balance the two styles of gameplay then wouldn't that be favorable in terms of player numbers and the game's diversity? It's possible some players with the sole intention of grinding to level up try out some of the quests, enjoys it, and ends up leveling by both means. Basically I don't see any downside with this type of implementation, it's the best of both worlds.

With the idea of leveling by doing quests.... are some of the quests repeatable? If not, looks like you will need quite a lot of quests for a character to reach level 99.

I like the color code idea too. This is especially true since you can't change your mind after making a selection (?) unlike single player RPGs where you can load a previous save.

And Suicune, I remember that lol. Saw those crazy screenshots. Whenever I make up my mind to grind for xx hrs straight, I ALWAYS fall asleep around 5am or so and ditch my leveling partner. Only exception was when my partner ditches me first lool.

Grinding would yield the same amount of exp as it'd take to normally grind on a server with that rate. With the exception of areas that would be balanced to prevent certain classes which level way too damn fast through rather cheesy means (no class should be in 90's trans withing two weeks or less).

There's not any way to balance the two because quests are additive to grinding. Because quests will at times also involve grinding. Because there will be limited repeatable quests for grinding in different areas. It's a supplement to grinding meant to help ease the need for grinding. Therefore it's not really possible to actually balance the two methods out. Though they may balance themselves out because while the quest taker is spending some time where they aren't gaining exp, the grinder would probably continue to do so.

That isn't a bad idea either. Boosting exp for active parties would probably require a modification to the server though. Though it may be worth the effort to encourage people to party more... and something I've found from most MMORPG's man. People never get any better unless they actually get the chance to party with others. Sometimes it even helps to give the person suggestions how they could improve.